May 21, 2001- Day 26
Where: Tamborine, QLD
Dinner: Pizza eaten in the car as take away because the restaurant was full
Day two in Tamborine! We got to take hot showers this morning and were able to charge the computer at the camp site which is always nice. After a bit of a late start we went on a rainforest walk. It was all under the mostly palm tree canopy which was so green and beautiful. I love looking up and seeing palm trees fanned out above you. There were also so many crazy vines growing. I think the ones that wind themselves up around the trunks of other trees are particularly cool. There were so many different vine designs though, and each one so different. We walked a short ways into a little waterfall which turned into a stream that ran along the rest of the walk. We checked out a map before we left and we were pretty sure we knew what we were doing. Because it's a rain forest and it has rained recently the trail got muddier as we went on. Instead of just walking to the falls and back we decided to continue along the trail, which is where is started to get quite muddy. At one point an arrow pointed us down to the stream, which was the muddiest part of all and thinking we needed to go that way in order to follow the trail, we did our best to carefully walk down to the water. Once down there, however, we realized that there was no further trail and we just had to turn around and walk back up the muddy track Awesome. Thanks for that sign. We figured a way to continue on, only to find that the trail was covered in small boulders that had obviously rolled down the hill. No worries, we can climb over those! After we did we saw a sign that said “Danger, falling rocks, do not stop walking. Closed in wet conditions.” Well technically it wasn't that wet, and we figured they were talking about the area we had just walked through. We were quite confident that we were on the right trail so we kept walking. After climbing over a few more boulders we finally reached a sign that said, “Dangerous conditions, trail closed.” Dead end. So we ended up turning around and walking back the way we came. It only took an hour ¼ in all, but our shoes were rather muddy by the end. Perhaps we should have showered after the rainforest walk. Well now we know!
After a sandwich lunch in the van we went up to visit a local brewery with a cheese factory inside as well. We enjoyed some cheese sampling (man I love free food and wine samples!) and then went and had a glass of beer at the brewery. We realized that we spend more money on special food and drinks than on anything else. We both really love eating and drinking though, and it's fun to try things that you can't find anywhere else. And free samples really do work because in the end we have purchased quite a bit of wine, spirits, and cheese on this trip! But we enjoy them so much when we eat them that I really don't feel bad at all.
From there we drove up to a man made cave that is full of glow worms. We figured we shouldn't pass up an opportunity to see glow worms, considering the only other way to see them would be to wait until night and walk down to the creek we had been at earlier. Walking in a rainforest alone at night? No thank you. Because glow worms need a particularly wet and dark climate to live in, they are not found in many places around the world. In fact, the ones we saw only live in Australia and New Zealand. They built a big fake limestone cave (very much like the real caves we visited in Buchan) so that people would be able to see the glow worms during the say. The ceiling on the cave you walk through is covered in little tiny lights that look very much like a starry sky. It is only the larvae that glow, and once they turn into little mosquito like flies they only live for a couple of days before they die. They make little webs, kindof like spiders, and then they glow in order to attract other bugs to them which then get stuck in the webs and the worms get dinner! Ingenious really. Who knew I would have the opportunity to see and learn so much about glow worms!
Tamborine is a wonderful little town, as I described yesterday, but unfortunately it is small and so after the glow worms there really wasn't much else left for us to do. We didn't want to head into Brisbane in the afternoon (because we already know how poorly that could turn out!) so we decided just to hang out for the rest of the afternoon and then leave for Brisbane early in the morning. We drove around for a while looking at all the cute little cottage-like houses around here. They really are so cute. Then we ended up back in the rainforest parking lot where we read and hing out in the van until 6 when the pizza place we wanted to go to opened. When 6 finally rolled around we went to the pizza place only to find out that they were booked for the evening. So much for out big evening outing. We decided just to get take away pizza and then pulled the van forward a block where we stopped and ate it. The back of the van turns from our living room into our bedroom and the front of the van turns from our driving seats into our dining room! Haha, it's really not so bad, except when food smells linger. That can be a bit nasty when you're laying around reading with the smell of onions hanging in the air.
After dinner, such as it was, we came back to the parking lot where we're going to stay for the night. We have a couple of fun card games which are good for passing the time, and Pat has some obnoxious Nintendo DS game that he plays while I type that involves him blowing into the game sensor. So I just get to listen to him blowing away while he tries to explain that in the game his blowing “makes beautiful music.” Yes Pat, I'm sure it does. Tomorrow we head into Brisbane, this time with more of a plan. I'm expecting much better results this time around.
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